Chapter 1
The weak knock came again from behind the gray door.
“Sofia…”
My daughter broke into tears beside me. The brass key trembled in one hand while Isabel’s blue-moon bracelet rested in the other, its crescent charm catching the corridor light exactly the way I remembered.
I slowly looked at Victoria.
“You weren’t replacing my wife,” I said. “You were hiding her inside my own house.”
Victoria’s face changed.
That was all the confirmation I needed.
The man I had just thrown into the library cart tried to crawl toward the adjoining hall. My guards closed around him before he made it three feet. Victoria stayed beside the wrecked antique-map cabinet, breathing hard and searching for a lie strong enough to survive what had just come through the door.
“Alejandro, listen to me.”
I ignored her.
Sofia pushed the brass key into my palm.
“Daddy, please.”
I turned toward the lock.
Victoria panicked.
“Do not open that door.”
Everyone in the corridor went still.
I looked over my shoulder. “Why?”
Her mouth opened, and the wrong answer came out.
“You don’t know what condition she’s in. You don’t know what she’ll say.”
Not she isn’t there.
What she’ll say.
I inserted the key.
The lock resisted once before turning with a heavy metallic click. Mateo grabbed Sofia’s hand. Alma pressed herself against my leg, too young to understand why every adult around her suddenly looked afraid of the same door she had been forbidden to touch.
I pulled it open.
The room beyond was narrow and dim. A cot rested against one wall. Water bottles sat beside it. Folded blankets covered a chair.
And Isabel was sitting on the floor.
Thinner.
Pale.
Alive.
For several seconds, I could not move.
Then Alma whispered, “Mommy?”
The children reached her before I did.
Sofia fell beside her. Mateo wrapped both arms around Isabel’s shoulders. Alma climbed straight into her lap as though nine months had been nothing more than a long afternoon.
I remained in the doorway because rage had become too large to move through.
Isabel looked past our children.
At Victoria.
Fear entered her face immediately.
“Don’t let her near the map cabinet.”
I turned slowly.
Victoria’s expression emptied.
Isabel held Sofia tighter.
“She didn’t lock me in here because she wanted you.”
May you like
Her voice was weak, but every person in the corridor heard the next sentence.
“She locked me in here because I found out who inside your family was preparing to take everything from you.”
